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SpongeBob SquarePants, also simply referred to as SpongeBob, is an Emmy award-winning American animated comedy series and media franchise. It is chronologically the tenth of Nickelodeon's Nicktoons and is currently the most-watched show on Nickelodeon. In 2007, it was named by TIME Magazine as one of the greatest television shows of all time. It also broke a record for the most amount of episodes aired in one year, with 45.

SpongeBob SquarePants is the longest-running Nickelodeon animated show. In 2012, the episode "Squiditis" was episode 173a, making SpongeBob the Nickelodeon series with the most episodes, surpassing the former holder, Rugrats, which consisted of 172 episodes. The year 2014 officially broke a record for the least episodes aired in one year. Only two episodes aired in 2014, which were "It Came from Goo Lagoon" and "Kenny the Cat." "Yeti Krabs" was the first episode to air in 2015 in the USA after a 1-year hiatus.[1] Five more full episodes aired that year.

As well as being the longest-running Nickelodeon animated series to date, SpongeBob holds the record as the second longest-running Viacom animated series, behind South Park.

Characters

The main character, SpongeBob SquarePants, is a childlike and optimistic yellow sea sponge who lives in a pineapple with his pet snailGary. SpongeBob loves his job as the fry cook at a fast food restaurant called the Krusty Krab, where he makes a type of burger called the Krabby Patty. His greatest ambition is to receive his license to drive a boatmobile. His favorite hobbies are jellyfishing and blowing bubbles.

SpongeBob's best friend Patrick Star lives two houses down from him. Patrick is a dim-witted pink starfish who lives under a rock. Squidward Tentacles, SpongeBob's next-door neighbor and co-worker at the Krusty Krab, is a self-centered octopus who lives in an Easter Island Head. He hates his job as a cashier and dislikes living near SpongeBob. The owner of the Krusty Krab is a cheap, money-obsessed crab named Mr. Krabs. He talks like a sailor and runs his restaurant like a pirate ship. Mr. Krabs is a single father with one daughter, a whale named Pearl. He wants to pass down his riches to Pearl, but she does not want to continue the family business and would rather spend her time at the Bikini Bottom Mall. Another friend of SpongeBob is Sandy Cheeks, a daredevil squirrel from Texas, who wears a diving suit to breathe underwater. She works as a scientist and lives in a treedome.

When SpongeBob is not at the Krusty Krab, he is usually taking boating lessons from Mrs. Puff, a paranoid pufferfish who runs her own Boating School. SpongeBob is Mrs. Puff's most diligent student and knows every answer to the oral exam, but he crashes whenever he tries to drive an actual boat. The Krusty Krab has an unsuccessful rival restaurant called the Chum Bucket. It is run by a green planktonic copepod named Plankton and his waterproof supercomputer, Karen. Plankton's ambition is to steal the secret recipe for Krabby Patties. Karen always supplies him with evil schemes to take the formula, but their efforts are never successful and their restaurant rarely gets customers.

Special episodes of the show are hosted by a live action pirate named Patchy and his pet parrot Potty. Patchy is the president of a fictional SpongeBob fan club and dreams of meeting SpongeBob himself. Potty is a crude marionette puppet who likes to make fun of Patchy's enthusiasm and causes trouble for him. An unseen scuba diver called the French Narrator often introduces episodes and narrates the time cards. His voice is a reference to the oceanographer Jacques Cousteau, who was an idol to Stephen Hillenburg.

Recurring guest characters appear throughout the series, such as Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy, a pair of elderly, semi-retired superheroes whom SpongeBob and Patrick are big fans of. Bikini Bottom is sometimes haunted by a pirate ghost called the Flying Dutchman, who glows green and drives a floating pirate ship. Bikini Bottom's local beach hangout Goo Lagoon is run by a muscular lifeguard named Larry the Lobster and frequented by a surfer fish named Scooter. The sea is ruled by a merman god named King Neptune, who lives in a palace with his family. News in Bikini Bottom is usually presented by the newsreader Johnny Elaine and the field reporter Perch Perkins.

Continuity

Continuity errors

There seems to be little continuity between the show's episodes, as the characters often meet a horrible fate, only for everything to be returned to normal in the next episode. Numerous examples are as follows:

In numerous episodes, the Krusty Krab and sometimes the entirety of Bikini Bottom itself is completely destroyed seemingly beyond repair, usually due to a mishap caused by SpongeBob.

In "Hooky," Patrick is reeled in by the hooks and trapped inside a can of tuna. The bus then drops him off at his house and he remains in the can, asking if anyone has a can opener.

In "Clams," Mr. Krabs is eaten (save for his head and left arm) by a giant clam.

In "Face Freeze!," SpongeBob, Patrick, Squidward, and Mr. Krabs develop "frozen faces" at the end of the episode.

Other continuity errors include paradoxes, such as someone saying that someone doesn't exist, but that person does exist later, or the looks and personality of one person changes and other errors.

In "Enemy In-Law," Mr. Krabs claims that the Krabby Patty formula has been passed down in his family, yet in "Friend or Foe," it is shown that Mr. Krabs and Plankton invented the formula together purely by accident.

At the end of "Roller Cowards," SpongeBob and Patrick buy their backbone. They have no backbones, being invertebrates.

When Patrick thinks he is ugly in "Something Smells," he says, "What is my sister going to think? Oh, wait, I don't have a sister..." and in "Rule of Dumb," Patrick is the only child of Herb and Margie Star. However, the episode "Big Sister Sam" is named after and revolves around Patrick's sister, Sam.

This could also just be a reference to his stupidity.

Instances of continuity

However, there does seem to be some continuity shown in some instances. Examples are:

Although bubbles are often seen throughout an episode, occurrences such as tears, flooding a building, inhabitants drinking liquids from glasses, bathtubs filled with what seems to be water, all fracture the underwater setting.

SpongeBob did not gain its popularity until around 2000, and it has remained popular since then, despite a five-month hiatus from April to October that year. It has extremely high ratings on TV.com, scoring an average of 9.0. SpongeBob SquarePants ranked #15 in IGN's Top 100 Best Animated Series, just five spots behind the top 10 list, but was able to place in the top 20. [2].

Broad appeal

SpongeBob is one in a long line of animated series that is designed to appeal to adults as well as children. This has a lot to do with the absurd way underwater life and situations are represented, and with the situations, references, and words used, which younger viewers might not understand. The show has become popular with younger viewers due to its silly characters, grade school-level jokes, fast pace, and colorful art style, while older viewers tend to praise the show for its writing, dialogue, cultural references, and innuendos. Certain innuendos also are intended to go over younger viewers' heads. For example, SpongeBob tries to show his grandma that he is a mature adult by wearing sideburns and a derby, and listening to "free-form jazz." In another example, when Squidward tricks SpongeBob and Patrick into thinking he is a ghost, a coral reef sculpted like Toulouse-Lautrec's can-can girls stands in the background (leading to a pun by Squidward). These are jokes most children would not understand. Numerous marine biology in-jokes are woven into the show. There are also often complex, ironic scenarios that need close attention.

While many newer cartoons revolve around pre-adolescents with strange lives and feature many pop-culture references (e.g. The Fairly OddParents), SpongeBob chooses to go for a formula that was used in highly successful older Nicktoons such as Ren and Stimpy and Rocko's Modern Life, with non-human adults in crazy, unrealistic situations, using minimal pop-culture references.

Part of the show's appeal has to do with the childlike nature of SpongeBob and his best friend, Patrick Star, both of whom are adults but display an innocence typical of human children. However, the characters are not immune from more adult avocations, including rock musicianship in a stadium performance, reminiscent of a hard rock concert, or Patrick turning to SpongeBob after they had nurtured a baby clam in the episode "Rock-a-Bye Bivalve," holding his arms out saying "Let's have another."

The TV movie "Atlantis SquarePantis" references numerous other movies or stories. David Bowie's character, Lord Royal Highness (with his upper class accent), and the locals looked remarkably like the Blue Meanies from Yellow Submarine - quite fitting for an underwater adventure. When the characters arrive at his habitat, he falls down as he proceeds down the red carpet (as Willy Wonka does in the Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory film), before leading them on a tour. A case can also be made for the yellow road used in the tour being a reference to The Wizard of Oz - along with the movie being a musical.

A tie-in beverage for The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie in 2001 at 7-Eleven convenience stores was created, a pineapple-flavored Slurpee, which was discontinued in 2005.

Events in the past with the SpongeBob SquarePants theme include an exhibit at Underwater Adventures Aquarium in the Mall of America called SeaCrits of Bikini Bottom during the summer of 2003. In October 2004, a NASCAR Busch Series race was named The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie 300, presented by Lowe's and broadcast on Turner Network Television (TNT) featuring Jimmie Johnson's #48 Lowe's stock car and Kyle Busch's #5 stock car painted for the race with the SpongeBob Movie paint schemes. There were contests tied in with the movie where fans could win SpongeBob-related items or a trip to the Cayman Islands.

The motion simulator/interactive movie ride "Escape from Dino-Island 3D" at Six Flags Over Texas was turned into "SpongeBob SquarePants 4-D," with water squirts, real bubbles, and other sensory enhancements. The SpongeBob SquarePants 4-D ride opened at the Noah's Ark Dive-In Theater located at Noah's Ark Water park in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin in the summer of 2005. LEGO received license to produce SpongeBob SquarePants building sets, which are available in stores now. SpongeBob appeared at the Mall of America's then-new-at-the-time theme along with the rest of the Nicktoons in a Nickelodeon theme park re-branded from the Mall of America's Park at MOA (formerly Camp Snoopy) to Nickelodeon Universe in 2006 in the Minneapolis-St. Paul suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. The theme park features a SpongeBob-themed Gerstlauer Euro-Fighter roller coaster, the SpongeBob SquarePants Rock Bottom Plunge, which replaces the Mystery Mine Ride and Olde Tyme Photo store on the eastern end of the theme park.

Other items featuring SpongeBob include special edition Monopoly, The Game of Life and Operation board games as well as a SpongeBob SquarePants edition of Ants in the Pants and Yahtzee. SEGA Corporation introduced a ticket redemption game based on the show that has become popular with most video arcades.[5]

The SpongeBob SquarePants market saturation has become something of a joke. In the comic strip "Sherman's Lagoon," Hawthorne the crab is showing off a small nuclear (Junior) reactor, and Herman the shark says: "Boy, that SpongeBob will endorse anything!"

When the complete first season of SpongeBob SquarePants was released in the United Kingdom, it included some heavy editing (though not to the cartoons themselves). The audio commentaries were cut out, and only two extras were left in, possibly to avoid a 12 rating. A similar approach was taken with the second season; it included no audio commentaries and only one extra, Around the World with SpongeBob SquarePants.

Currently, there is a promotion from Burger King that promotes the song Baby Got Back. It features the King and dancers dressed like SpongeBob and in some scenes, some parts of SpongeBob episodes. It promotes that if you get a kids meal and you get a SpongeBob toy with it.

History

Development (1993–1998)

SpongeBob's history can be traced back to 1993 when Rocko's Modern Life first aired. One of the producers was Stephen Hillenburg, a cartoon worker/marine biologist who loved both his careers. When Rocko's Modern Life was canceled in 1996, Hillenburg began working on SpongeBob (although sketches trace back to 1987). He teamed up with creative director Derek Drymon, who had worked on shows such as Doug, Action League Now!, and Hey Arnold!. Drymon had worked with Hillenburg on Rocko's Modern Life as well, as did many SpongeBob crew members, including writer-directors Sherm Cohen and Dan Povenmire, writer Tim Hill, voice actors Tom Kenny and Doug Lawrence (A.K.A. "Mr. Lawrence"), actor-writer Martin Olson, and animation director Alan Smart. Another crew member with previous Nickelodeon cartoon experience was former Angry Beavers story editor Merriwether Williams, who worked on that show for its first few seasons and switched to SpongeBob in July 1998.

During production of the show, Bobson provided a concept of short comics with the same style of the show, but the characters looked different. SpongeBob used to be named SpongeBoy,[6] and used to wear a red hat with a green base and a white business shirt with a tie. The name "SpongeBoy" did not make it into the show since the name was already officially trademarked by Bob Burden, creator of Flaming Carrot. Hillenburg later chose the alternative name "SpongeBob." The original name was once referenced in the episode Squeaky Boots with Mr. Krabs' line, "SpongeBoy, me Bob!." The Krusty Krab was originally spelled with the letter C rather than K, but Stephen Hillenburg thought Ks were funnier and it would fit his Ukrainian heritage.

Old Spongebob Promo

The first SpongeBob commercial

SpongeBob aired its first episode, "Help Wanted / Reef Blower /Tea at the Treedome," after the 1999 Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards. At this time, Rugrats was the most popular show on Nickelodeon and had already outlived dozens of other lower-budget cartoons. SpongeBob, with its generally lower-class animation and humor style more rooted in clever word-play and culture-references unlike the potty humor that made Rugrats so popular, was expected to be just another one of those shows. Following early struggles, its ratings soared, and a year after release, it surpassed Rugrats as Nickelodeon's highest rated show. SpongeBob's signature voice (provided by Tom Kenny) and humorous style were enjoyable to both younger and older audiences.

Peak years (2000–2003)

Early online spot, featuring the older character designs

By 2001, the show had flourished into Nickelodeon's No. 2 children's program, after Rugrats. Nearly 40 percent of the show's audience of 2.2 million were aged 18 to 34 [144]. As a result, Nickelodeon expanded the show's exposure on television from Saturday morning to almost-prime time, broadcasting at 6 PM, Monday through Thursday [144]. In 2001, Nickelodeon took the "Saturday-morning ratings crown" for the fourth straight season, grabbing a 4.8 rating/21 share (1.9 million viewers) in kids 2-11, jumping 17% compared to the previous year [145]. During its third season, SpongeBob SquarePants passed Rugrats and earned the title of the highest-rated children's show on cable, with a 6.7 rating and 2.2 million kids 2 to 11 in the second quarter of 2002, up 22% over 2001 [144][146][147]. Forbes called the show "a $1 billion honeypot," and said that the show was "almost single-handedly responsible for making Viacom's Nickelodeon the most-watched cable channel during the day and the second most popular during prime time" [144]. It was also reported that, of the 50 million viewers who watch it every month, 20 million are adults.[148][149]

Unfortunately, things changed later in the year. Due to rumors of a movie, there was speculation that the show would be canceled and that 2002 would feature the last season of new episodes. Fans were devastated and online petitions were widely distributed to convince Nickelodeon to produce more episodes by showing continuing fan support. "SpongeBob Meets the Strangler / Pranks a Lot" was the last episode of this season, and aired in October 2004 after it was released on DVD in early 2004.

Hiatus and movie era (2003–2005)

In late 2002, Stephen Hillenburg and the show's staff members decided to stop making episodes and work on the 2004 film: The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, after completing the production of the third season.[3] As a result, the show went into a "self-imposed" two-year Hiatus on television.[4] During the break, Nickelodeon expanded the programming for the third season to cover the delay. However, according to Nickelodeon executive Eric Coleman, "there certainly was a delay and a built-up demand."[5] Nickelodeon announced nine "as-yet-unaired" episodes would be shown.[6] "The Sponge Who Could Fly" first aired during a two-hour "Sponge"-a-thon, while the other eight were broadcast subsequently.[6] The last 2 episode segments from season 3 "SpongeBob Meets the Strangler" and "Pranks a Lot" were delayed for the longest amount of time. In October 2004, the last 2 episode segments were finally aired, just 1 month before the show's first film.

It was announced late in 2004 that SpongeBob would be continuing with a new season in 2005. Hillenburg, despite the rumors, did not actually leave the show, but resigned from his position as the show's executive producer (this job now belongs to Paul Tibbitt with Vincent Waller taking over Drymon's job as creative director).

The movie finally released in November 2004. In late 2004, Tom Kenny and Bill Fagerbakke and the rest of the crew confirmed they have completed four new episodes for broadcast on Nickelodeon in early 2005,[15][16] The hiatus ended on May 6, 2005, when the 4th season officially premiered.

Comeback (2005-2007)

Season 4

TV advertisements for the show's fourth season first aired publicly during the 2005 Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards. The new episodes began airing on May 6, 2005. The first new episodes of season 4 were "Fear of a Krabby Patty" / "Shell of a Man." After airing six new episodes on Fridays from May 6 – May 20, Nickelodeon showed no new episodes until September 2005.

For the first time in the series' run, Nickelodeon began airing 11-minute segments of new episodes separately, spread over two weeks. This practice began with the airing of the episode "Selling Out" on September 23; its companion episode "Funny Pants" premiered the following week.

The Star Online eCentral reported in December 2005 that Nickelodeon had ordered 20 more episodes, bringing the show’s total to 100.[7]

Nickelodeon aired the special "Have You Seen This Snail?" in November 2005. However, it was not until February 2006 that new episodes resumed, starting with "Dunces and Dragons" and continuing until June 22006. Further new episodes appeared during September 2006 ("New Leaf /Once Bitten"), October ("Wigstruck"), and November ("Best Day Ever") — drawing 6.7 million viewers — "Best Day Ever" was a 25-hour 100-episode SpongeBob TV event ending with The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, although the Nickelodeon narrator made a goof about the marathon being 24 hours instead of the actual 25 hours. Fans voted for "Karate Island" as the most popular SpongeBob episode. The Best 10 Ever airs after "Best Day Ever."

Season 5

The new episodes aired in an event called "Patrick For President." The event happened on February 19, 2007 and officially beginning the airing of the fifth season which featured more potty humor than previously shown. A special episode from season 5 aired on April 13, 2007. On July 23, 2007 Nickelodeon aired a special event, called the "NEW NEW NEW NEW NEW Week," in which from Monday to Friday, two new episodes of season five (except for "Squid Wood" from season 4) would air. This continued until August 3, 2007.

On November 12, 2007, SpongeBob's first TV movie "Atlantis SquarePantis" premiered, after a SpongeBob marathon. A behind the scenes feature aired after the movie. Also on November 23, 2007, there was another SpongeBob marathon including a rerun of Atlantis SquarePantis and eight new episodes. Season 5 officially finished airing on July 19, 2009 with the TV episode premiere of "Goo Goo Gas."

Decline in Quality (2008-2015)

Season 6

SpongeBob SquarePants approved a sixth season, which consisted of twenty-six episodes.
It started the sixth season on March 3, 2008, starting a week of new episodes, starting with "Krabby Road." On March 29, right after Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards 2008, Spongicus/Nautical Novice aired. Then, on April 11, "Pest of the West," a special, aired.[8] Then on June 2, 2008, SpongeBob Premiere Factor 5 aired episodes.

Season 7

In the summer of July there was a 10th Anniversary Marathon that aired 12 new episodes (six in season 7) starting on July 17, 2009. The first episode from season 7, "Tentacle-Vision" aired on July 19, 2009 in the morning. Then, another episode didn't air until October 24, 2009 with "The Curse of Bikini Bottom." Then a TV movie called "Truth or Square" aired in November 2009. This was done to celebrate the 10th anniversary.

In 2010, the first two episodes aired on January 2. On September 11, 2010 a special called Nick Saturdays started with "Yours, Mine and Mine" and" Kracked Krabs." Nick Saturdays aired new episodes of Nicktoons on Saturdays. On September 26, 2010, it was announced that when season 8 was believed to have already started, that season 7 was going to have 26 episodes instead of 20, so season 8 wasn't premiered yet. This was confusing to many SpongeBob fans.

Season 8

In December 2009, Nickelodeon ordered enough episodes to bring the series up to 178 episodes. Season 8 first aired on March 26, 2011 with the episodes "Oral Report" and "A Friendly Game." Another episode called "Sentimental Sponge" aired on April 2, 2011. After this, there was a new episode every Saturday in June, which was similar to the "New Episodes Every Friday in March" event in 2002. 4 new episodes aired on November 25, 2011, as part of Super Stuffed Nicktoons Weekend. There were no new episodes until March 31, 2012, which preceded a two-week premiere event from April 2 to April 13. On April 11, 2012, with the airing of "Squiditis" (173a), it surpassed Rugrats (which had 172 episodes) Nickelodeon's longest-running cartoon. A second Christmas special named "It's a SpongeBob Christmas!" premiered on December 6, 2012 to conclude the season.

Return of Hillenburg (2015-present)

Season 9

On January 3, 2011, Nickelodeon ordered 26 episodes for a ninth season, which began airing in 2012. It will bring the number of episodes up to 204, making SpongeBob SquarePants the first Nicktoon to pass the 200-episode milestone. Season 9 consists of episodes 179-204. It premiered on July 21, 2012, with the premiere of "Extreme Spots" and "Squirrel Record." This season makes the series transition on 1080i HD (widescreen 16:9).

Season 11

Season 12

On May 5, 2017, Vincent Waller tweeted [9] that the series was renewed for season 12. Season 12 premiered on November 11, 2018 with "FarmerBob." Hillenburg was unable to return due to his death in November 2018.

Junior Brown: Sandy Cheeks ("Texas"; sang the last line: "I want to go home.") NOTE: Brown also sang the entire "SpongeBob SquarePants Theme Song" over the closing credits; however, because Nickelodeon usually runs advertising or promotional spot announcements during the closing credit sequences, the soundtrack is obliterated on both Nickelodeon and Nickelodeon 2 telecasts of this episode. Junior Brown's vocals may, however, be heard in their entirety on broadcasts of "Texas" that are telecast on the Nicktoons network, which runs the credits without the promotional vocals that it adds on its two flagship stations.

Awards

Note:SpongeBob SquarePants won the Annie Award for Best Writing in an Animated Television Production in 2006 and Best Voice Acting in a Television Production in 2010.

Kids' Choice Awards for Favorite Cartoon Show of 2003-2007, 2009-2017

Note:SpongeBob SquarePants lost to Avatar: The Last Airbender in the 2008 Kids' Choice Awards, making it the show's first loss after a five-year consecutive winning streak.

Emmy Award for Outstanding Special Class Animated Program of 2010

The show had been nominated for an Emmy Award eight times from 2002-2009. It had also been nominated for an Annie Award eight times as well.

Spinoffs

On February 14, 2019, it was announced that SpongeBob SquarePants spinoffs are in development.[10]

Brian Robbins, President of Nickelodeon, believes there is an avenue to "tell an original story about SpongeBob and Patrick, or maybe tell a Sandy Cheeks stand-alone story, or can Plankton have his own? I think the fans are clamoring for it." He further said "That's our Marvel Universe... You have this amazing show that's run for almost twenty years."[11]

These spinoffs could take the form of new series, specials and feature-length movies.[12]

Trivia

SpongeBob SquarePants Original Theme Clip 1997

In 1997, a clip was shown featuring a unique opening with the title card music of "Hall Monitor," this might have been to be the opening before the SpongeBob SquarePants opening theme was written. This theme was originally used in 1997 version of the episode "Help Wanted."[13]

SpongeBob SquarePants is Nickelodeon's longest-running show, with The Fairly OddParents being a close second.

SpongeBob SquarePants is the most-distributed property of MTV Networks.

According to Vincent Waller, it takes approximately nine months to make a single episode.[14]

SpongeBob SquarePants is currently one of the only two Nickelodeon shows to still air in Japan after Nickelodeon Japan closed down on September 30, 2009 (the other one is Game Shakers), as well as being to only Nicktoon to still air in Japan, however it was confirmed that Nickelodeon Japan will return in 2018, meaning other shows (ex. The Loud House) will start airing in Japan.

Jesus-is-savior.com, a Westboro Baptist Church-apologist website, has criticized the show of promoting homosexuality and sodomy among children.